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ChipMusic.org / Forums / Posts by Frau Holle firestARTer
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Holy shit I'm glad this thread came around, looks fucking amazing!
Have you considered crowd-funding (if you even need funds)? I'm sure people would back it in a heartbeat!
Yes thats the plan if i don't get the first batch financed through another way.
Yippie-ki-yay! Great to hear you're making progess on this, even if it's slower than you wanted
I wonder about HDMI though. Won't that lead to a massive price increase because of the license fees?
Yes don't worry about that. There is no price increase at all caused by the HDMI possibility.
Oh yes...some time ago and alot happened since then.
I finished a first prototype which i showed at several fairs and parties. And it is working quite well, even though some features didn't work as expected in the first place.
In general alot of things changed compared to the early versions and roadmap. The Nerdsynth itself will be a bit bigger than planned (Not as handheld as planned in the first place, but it is still portable and can run on batteries) so 4 cartridges will fit next to each other. I tried 2x2 carts but that turned up to be unsexy and shaky. (Actually the cartridges take most of the space)
Also all carts can be polyphonic now if they support it ( like the SID can use all 3 voices ). I made several cartridges which include soundchips or the designs of some digital/analogue synths: ATMegatron, Meeblip Anode, SID, Soundgin ( yes it can talk and sing, too), DSP-G1, CV/Gate/Mod out (right from the tracker) and a DIY one where you could add your own synth design and use it seamless in the Nerdsynth. They are more to come. I will add more and more carts frequently so you can choose yourself what your Nerdsynth will be. Only chip, mixed with analogue, noise...whatever...
There is one internal synthesizer in the Nerdsynth (SwinSID by default, which can be replaced by any SID (for the purists)... i decided to skip my own soundchip development for now in favour to get the Nerdsynth finished. (There will be a firestARTer cartridge one day though..)) And they are 4 sample tracks. So for the sound they are 9 polyphonic tracks! Beside that they are 4 visual tracks...So you can create visuals right from the tracker (HDMI and composite output). All can be triggered and played like the live mode in LSDJ or LGPT.
All Cartridges (soundchips) have a dedicated line-output. So you can use the direct soundchip sounds in your mixer. They will be also a internal stereo mix with effects so you can connect a stereo line out or your headphones directly.
6 Knobs can be freely assigned (also from the tracker) to any effect or feature of the soundchips and also the visuals.
There is Midi in-out and all tracks can also be midi tracks. A SEGA Gamepad can be connected too for the real feeling. (Gamepad + TV-Set = Tracking)
There is alot more to tell... i am now very busy finishing the next (and hopefully final) prototype.
Please check the last videos if you haven't yet. One from 2015 which shows some GUI basics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy1dT0vTwQE
And the second which shows some improvement in the Graphics but also shows a first version of tracked visuals..the video output can be a clone of the tracker screens or the visual generation. I switch from one to the other in the video (video comes right from the video output and is in real in perfect quality, i got to improve the video recording quality):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FUP9JyeHGw
Please stay tuned...since i do this in my part time it's progressing slower than expected. But i will get there!!!
cheers
firestARTer
www.nerdsynth.com
www.facebook.com/nerdsynth
www.twitter.com/nerdsynth
Ah yes....i hope to get the hardware and the first release version ready (firmware can be easily updated and is a work in progress...i will listen to your feature requests..) by the end of the year...thumbs crossed....
Finally, my contribute for the forthcoming 8-Bit Operators Depeche Mode Tribute Compilation (Volume 2) is online.
firestARTer - Everything Counts
Listen and download for free:
Multiple outputs it will be!
I will try to get everything out of the soundchips and the samples of course. But as a general rule, soundchips first, samples are secondary.
I just added effects to the table screen.
So now all soundchip effects can be changed through the tables.
So standard it's limited to only playing 2 channels?
I would say, standard you would get a nerdsynth with 4 cartridges of your choice anyway.
So all channels are always filled. And of course you can get other cartridges too to use other soundchips/sounds.
Thats at least the idea. Because different soundchips got different needs in communication and power, we need to make modules. Thats why we decided to make cartridges.
So by default the soundchip you would get is the nerdsynth one?
One soundchip (Track) will be the Nerdsynth one by default.
One Track will be sample based.
And there are 4 slots for cartridges where you can put in any soundchip adapter you want, that are the other 4 tracks.
In complete 6 tracks.
We really want to make it affordable. But anyway you got enough time to save some money for it! ;-)
We recently put some news on the Nerdsynth Webpage, check it out as it contains also a photo of a mockup to show how it could look like:
http://www.nerdsynth.com/autumn-update/
After playing some live concerts and showcases it’s time to give some information about the development progress again. We are very busy getting the new prototype ready which will contain all features we decided on for version 1.0. Hopefully there will be enough time to draw the PCB and get it to the manufacturer before the end of the year. Then we can solder and build a new prototype in early 2015. Jan and Thomas will do their best to achieve this. Our new team member Bram will redesign the Nerdsynth website in the meantime so it doesn’t look so boring.
These are our plans about new stuff that the Nerdsynth will be able to do (or at least what we want it to do..)
-Portable Digital Hardware Tracker music tool with 6 Tracks (Channels)
-There will be 2 fixed tracks used by the Nerdsynth itself.
Track 1: Our very own Nerdsynth Soundchip (which will be feature rich and very cool!! Draw your own waveforms on the touchscreen, crazy wavetables etc…a work in progress)
Track 6: Sample track. Here you can play (multiple) samples, change their pitch, add FX, just as you know it from mod-trackers. Perfect for drums and voices….or maybe a special sampled instrument. The aim is to have most probably 4 ‘sub’-tracks here. It will also be possible to create advanced rhythm patterns here, not just 4 by 4.
Track 2..5: User Tracks. Here you can assign 4 Soundchip Modules ( we call them NSA … Nerdsynth Sound Adapter ) to the 4 tracks. Those modules will be ‘adapters’ to old and new soundchips. Soundchips we want to support are SID6581/8580, YM/AY, ATMegatron, Pokey, Speakjet/Soundgin, OPL-3, Analogue sound modules, CV/Gate out and some more. There will be a list of soundchips we want to support and a progressbar to show their state. Those NSA’s will be in the form of Cartridges as you know them from old consoles/homecomputers. You insert 4 of them in the Nerdsynth and it will recognize which Soundchip is installed on which Track and enables its specific features in the Tracker.
- 6 free assignable (via effect commands or global) Rotary encoders. Cool while playing live!
- PC Keyboard Input for happy editing ala Fasttracker2
- VGA output to connect a monitor and edit your songs there instead of the tiny display
BUT: There will be more to the VGA output. Instead of cloning the display output to the monitor a 7th track can be used to ‘track’ some Video stuff->Make your own visuals!! Think of a tracker like interface, but instead of inserting Notes and Effects you insert commands like ‘draw line from coordinate A to coordinate B’… and many more commands and graphic effects. Tracked graphics!
- Simple usability without triple or quadruple functions per button.
- Stereo output with line and Headphone out
- Mono output of each soundchip channel
- Special ability to direct access all soundchip registers directly in the effect column (also in tables)
- VU Meter/ Equalizer for each track
…and much more stuff. A full feature list will be posted when the new website is ready
We plan to produce the Nerdsynth but that will take at least 1 or 2 more years until it is ready for that. Now we will concentrate on implementing and testing the basic features and hopefully all our hardware ideas will also work as expected in the new prototype.
Until then, check out the mockup and stay tuned for new information.
Nerdsynth on Web, Facebook and Twitter:
http://www.nerdsynth.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nerdsynt … 1512985343
https://twitter.com/NerdSynth
cheers
Thomas firestARTer
Just some news ( i you don't follow us on our website, facebook or twitter ), we are still busy with it of course and i will do some Nerdsynth showcases aswell as concerts the coming 2 weekends.
First there will be a mini-concert this friday at the open-mic of the famous Eindbaas party in Amsterdam.
https://www.facebook.com/events/3520376 … 0/?fref=ts
On saturday i will take the Nerdsynth ( still an early prototype ) to Copenhagen to do a 'presentation' and play a concert at the Mikrodisko festival.
https://www.facebook.com/events/6199152 … 6/?fref=ts
And then i will play on the open stage of the incredible Superbyte Festival thursday the 11th. Saturday the 13th i will do a showcase with Superbytes workshops. You will get the chance to play with it!
http://www.superbytefestival.co.uk/
So beside some talk you can get your hands on it within the next two weeks. We love to show you what we got so far and get some comments and ideas about stuff we didn't think of.
The Nerdsynth is going to be real!
Yes..also i will play the Nerdsynth at the Pre-Party!! See you there!
Here my first live set using the Nerdsynth only:
In case you haven't heared it yet. Here is a first HQ sound demo of the Nerdsynth. Very Basic but gives a small hint of what to expect in the coming months:
https://soundcloud.com/nerdsynth/nerdsynth-demo1
Everything is done on a standalone Nerdsynth prototype in Live-Mode, comparable to LSDJ's or LGPT's Live mode. The soundchips are 6 ATMegatron sound engines (Not real ATMegatrons, just the 'soundchip'of it).
We tend to also include the YM as a soundchip.
But it'll take some time, for now we focus on the general thing.
HQ-Sounds coming soon..
Howdy, time to answer some questions about the Nerdsynth.
it'll use several soundchips. That means that it'll be customizable. For sure it'll use the Nerdsynths own soundchip, that we are developing, but also most probably the soundengine from the ATMegatron. And the SID for sure. (And more) We make adapters (so called NSA ' s...Nerdsynth Sound Adapter) so we can assign one soundchip to one track.
Right now, the ATMegatron engine (which is awesome, you definitely should get one!!!) is working and the Nerdsynth soundchip is in development.
Hopefully it'll be very small..that means so that you can carry it around and play with it. It won't be as small as a gameboy though. I thought about the size of a micro modular and hope that we can make it.
Also there will be a bunch of buttons to make editing very easy. Beside them we want to add a PS2 or USB connection to add a keyboard editing for sure.(Fast Tracker 2'ish key combinations)
And another point on our list is the possibility to connect a VGA monitor so you can simply edit stuff with a keyboard and a monitor as you are used to it.
(Another track will be added to sequence graphics, so you can have a song with 'visuals' instead of the editor, probably nice for live)
Ah yes, nearly forgot Midi...beside the usual clock stuff we want to sequence some midi, too.
Most important is the fact that we try to develope everything DIY friendly. So we will make a base module where the CPU board (most probably from Olimex), the LC-Display and the NSA's and the final effect NSA will be plugged in. We intend to make kits without soldering required (some chips you and we can't even solder, that will be the job of Robots). And we'll see if we will make also complete ones. Lets first implement all wanted features ( though the ones listed are wishes and we might change here and there depending on time and effort it takes...).
In general, our Goal is to do the next step and make a real cool hardware tracker which will be LSDJ, LGPT and others together, but still as easy as them! .......well and my gp2x and gameboy cartridges are dying, so i needed to make something new ;-)
Feel free to ask any questions here, or on our Facebook page. Follow us on twitter for last minute news and check the blog where you will see the progress.
Http://www.nerdsynth.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nerdsynt … 1512985343
https://twitter.com/NerdSynth
Cheers
Thomas firestARTer aka Frau Holle
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